This might be her first U.S. Open since 1995, but Martina Navratilova has played long enough to know that something was wrong.

“I’m thinking, I should have hit that volley,” the left-handed legend was saying last night after her second-round U.S. Open doubles match at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Then just before taking her next serve, Navratilova realized the problem. She had forgotten to put on her glasses. Perhaps that happens at 43.

“I went to serve and I’m like, Oh, no!” she said about the embarrassing second-set memory. “And I’m like, should I pretend that I don’t know that I don’t have them and just keep playing? No, it’s too big a point. So I put them on.”

That made all the difference. By no longer seeing two balls, Navratilova, teaming with Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, won the next four points en route to a 7-5, 6-0 rout against the Generation X duo of Jennifer Capriati and Anna Kournikova before a large and appreciative crowd.

Continuing to turn back the clock, Navratilova showed that she has lost nothing off her net-game, which was unparalleled during her Hall of Fame career. Though she’s double the combined age of her opponents last night, the four-time Open singles champion is in top shape with Popeye-size biceps and quick-as-ever reflexes.

In July, Navratilova came out of retirement to play doubles at Wimbledon, her first Grand Slam appearance since ’96. She then decided to play doubles and mixed doubles [she and her partner Rick Leach are in the second round] at the Open, mainly for the exercise, and the challenge of seeing if she can still compete.

“The feeling’s the same, the game’s not,” a not-so-drained Navratilova said. “You know, they’re hitting the ball very hard and I haven’t seen balls coming hard at me like that. They don’t play normal doubles, they just whack it and I haven’t played enough. So it’s nerve-racking.”

With her savvy and experience, Navratilova, who will be 44 in October, said she would “beat a few players” if she was still competing in singles. But she said she has no intention of doing that.

“It’s too hard,” she said. “[Doubles] is a treat, this is a vacation. Playing singles is a commitment.”